Some area perks in Perdue budget

Governor's spending plan

ATLANTA - Some Athens-area institutions will come out ahead of where they are now if the Georgia General Assembly passes the state budget proposed Wednesday by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

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Budget benefits include $1.5 million to equip the University of Georgia's new Performing and Visual Arts Center once it's built, $180,000 for the UGA Agricultural Experiment Stations and $810,000 for construction of a new public library in the Barrow County city of Auburn.

The University System Board of Regents received all of the money it requested from Perdue. That covers money for enrollment growth, new construction and maintenance that will be used in a number of buildings across Athens.

"His funding of our student enrollment growth will be critically important," said regents spokesman John Millsaps. "This is the No. 1 priority of the chancellor and the Board of Regents."

Reaction among local legislators was mixed, as many hadn't had much of a chance to study the 350-page budget outline since Perdue unveiled it Wednesday night.

State Sen. Brian Kemp, R-Athens, was pleased, especially with the focus on schools.

"Having the (university enrollment) formula funded and the growth funded is a good thing," he said, pledging to keep a close eye on the funding level during the legislative process from his vantage point as chairman of the Higher Education Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

But state Rep. Jane Kidd, D-Athens, was unimpressed, particularly with the proposed 2 percent pay raise for teachers and state employees

"As far as pay raises for teachers and state employees, I'm glad something is being done, but it doesn't make up for the cuts last year," she said.

Kidd was also displeased that the governor proposed saving $260,000 by closing group homes in Winder, Gainesville, Albany and Savannah operated by the state Department of Juvenile Justice for young people coming from "unstable" homes. Neither does she like his eliminating dental coverage for children receiving PeachCare for Kids health insurance from the state.

"Those are harsh cuts," she said.

Still, she is hoping Perdue will add money for some local projects, particularly $100,000 for former Garden Springs residents who were evicted by developers from their trailer park off North Avenue in Athens. The money would go toward waterlines and roads in a new trailer park they are establishing.

Kemp noted that, despite criticism from Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor about pork-barrel spending, few items of narrow local concern wound up in Perdue's proposal, unlike past years that included money for band uniforms or lights for Little League fields.

"Now you're seeing the projects that people are working to keep or get in the budget are libraries or classrooms," he said. "That just shows where the priorities are in the new administration."

The library in Auburn, for example, has been on the regents' to-do list, moving up from No. 7 to No. 2 in priority. It would be built on Sixth Street on two acres the city set aside years ago to replace the tiny, 900-square-foot facility that's bursting at the seams, said Auburn librarian Fay Page.

Not specifically mentioned in the budget is construction money for a dining hall at the Rock Eagle facility in Putnam County requested by state Rep. Mickey Channell, D-Greensboro. He secured money to plan and design it last year and hoped to get the funds this year to carry it through.

The statewide programs in the budget will logically benefit local counties, too. Hiring 500 more caseworkers for the state Division of Family and Children Services could solve some criticisms that have been raised locally, for instance.

Most lawmakers contacted Thursday hadn't plowed through the phone-book-sized budget document or even the searchable CD-rom version. They were still moving into their offices that were assigned to them Wednesday.

But each predicted that both chambers of the legislature would make some additions and subtractions before the complete budget is passed.